Are these fair?
Rape is a bad thing. It’s a crime for a reason. It’s even in some ways worse than many “worse” crimes that are punished more such as robbery.

However, the severity of the crime shouldn’t be the only measure of our reaction to it. We are a nation of laws, and we must treat each crime individually, with facts and evidence. I think this focus on “believe the women at all costs” is unfair.

To EVERYONE.

Are these fair?

Unfair?

To whom?

The victim? The authorities? The “perpetrator”?

I’ve been to college.

Also in the military, where the whole “rape epidemic” is also being portrayed in the media.

I’ve seen and heard about lots of rape cases.

Often it’s not as cut and dried as the activists portray.

For example, what is your definition of rape?

On some colleges it is “if one or both of the participants was drinking.”

Well, that’s virtually EVERY sexual encounter in college.

If two of your best friends each give differing accounts of a drunken encounter the night before… who do you believe? What evidence do you have? Are you willing to take one friend’s side to the extent of pressing charges and ruining their life based on just the word of that other friend?

Could you do that?

A jury is expected to do that in a rape case, often without clear evidence. In America we are presumed innocent, so lack of evidence means the “criminal” is presumed innocent. Yet somehow in rape cases, the claim is “Well he got away with it.”

What is the motivation to reveal or not reveal the encounter?

They say so many are not reported. How many are overreported? Lots of the women claiming “rape” in the military reported it only after they thought ti would be revealed they were having an affair while their spouse was away (or they were deployed.)

What is the evidence available? Can you blame authorities if they have no conclusive evidence of a crime? How does sex LOOK much different? Even protesting it often resembles rough consensual sex. There isn’t PHYSICAL evidence often of it.

So, that leaves a He Said/She Said argument. You simply can’t just go on a Hearsay argument. Imagine if ANY other crime were approached this way.

“Well you must be guilty of that murder because I say so. If you don’t trust me you must be sexist!”

I’m all about JUSTICE. You can’t pursue INJUSTICE and ignorance of facts in order to blindly support INJUSTICE and avoidance of the law and evidential fact.

Since when is wanting more evidence or facts “sexist?”

While we’re on the topic, there IS a relationship between bad choices leading to other bad choices. If you go out to a party precisely to get passed-out drunk, bad things are going to happen. ow can you assume that it will end well? No, that does NOT condone rape.

However, how the hell do you know what happened if you were passed out? Why did the victim assume that it was “okay” to make bad choices and expect a good outcome?

Do we reward people for abusing cocaine and expecting everything to be fine? Why would alcohol be different? Why is it considered a criminal offense to DRIVE drunk? To even SIT IN A CAR DRUNK…. but it’s fine to wander around and have sex drunk and then blaming someone else?

Either people ARE responsible for their actions and bad decisions… or they are NOT.

In fact, treating women special and NOT allowing them to take responsibility for bad decisions while drunk is treating them like children. Is that the message we want to send? That these strong, indepdendent young women need to be treated special because they’re not able to make their own decisions and accept the consequences?